Exploring the Political, Economic, and Environmental Impacts of AI Data Center Growth in the U.S
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.58445/rars.4308Keywords:
AI, Data Centers, US AI DevelopmentAbstract
The growth of data centers in the U.S. in recent years has caused widespread impacts on the U.S. economy and local and national politics. This paper analyzes a range of academic research, news coverage, government reports, and policy analyses to present a timeline of the recent growth of data centers and their impacts. It analyzes both short- and long-term economic impacts at the local, state, and national level. Moreover, this research seeks to better understand the increased electricity demand driven by AI and how it will affect carbon emissions. It examines the carbon emissions from the new power demand in the U.S., focusing largely on the main technology companies (e.g., Google, OpenAI, Anthropic). Furthermore, leading up to the 2026 midterms, this paper inspects the role that AI is playing in politics, especially how congressional candidates are forming their opinions about it in light of recent grassroots opposition movements. It finds that AI is growing at alarming rates in the face of government deregulation. Yet widespread criticism of data centers’ environmental impacts is gaining traction that may refute this trend. This paper examines how AI functions in society and poses both as an asset that the United States can dominate for political and economic leverage, and as a societal threat.
References
"Amazon Plans to Invest $20 Billion in Pennsylvania to Expand Cloud Computing
Infrastructure and Advance AI Innovation." Amazon News, 9 June 2025,
www.aboutamazon.com/news/aws/Amazon-pennsylvania-investment-cloud-infra
structure-ai-innovation. Accessed 19 Oct. 2026.
Atalan, Yasir, et al. "Understanding the U.S. Federal Government's AI Spending." CSIS,
Sept. 2026,
www.csis.org/analysis/understanding-us-federal-governments-ai-spending.
Accessed 19 Oct. 2026.
"Building More than Data." Associated General Contractors,
www.agc.org/datacenters/economic. Accessed 19 Oct. 2026.
Cai, Sophia, and Katie Roof. "Trump Admin to Receive $100 Million in Compute Credits
for AI Science Initiative." Politico, 7 Oct. 2026,
www.politico.com/news/2026/10/07/trump-compute-credits-ai-science-initiative-0
Accessed 19 Oct. 2026.
Callanan, Riley. "Data Center Boom Puts Republicans in a Bind before Midterm
Elections." CBS News, 12 Oct. 2026,
www.cbsnews.com/news/data-center-boom-republicans-2026-midterm-elections/
. Accessed 19 Oct. 2026.
"Data Centers Are Booming. Who Benefits?" Georgia Tech, 9 July 2026,
www.gatech.edu/news/2026/07/09/data-centers-are-booming-who-benefits.
Accessed 19 Oct. 2026.
Edmonds, Lauren. "3 Years Old, 800 Million Users, 29,000 Prompts a Second:
ChatGPT's Meteoric Rise, by the Numbers." Business Insider, 1 Dec. 2025,
www.businessinsider.com/chatgpt-by-the-numbers-2025-11. Accessed 19 Oct.
"Five Types of Data Centers." CoreSite,
www.coresite.com/blog/five-types-of-data-centers. Accessed 19 Oct. 2026.
Google Environmental Report 2024. Google. Google,
sustainability.google/reports/google-2024-environmental-report/. Accessed 19
Oct. 2026.
Haranas, Mark. "Data Center Market Share Face-Off: Hyperscalers Vs. Colocation Vs.
Enterprise." CRN, 10 Apr. 2026,
www.crn.com/news/data-center/2026/data-center-market-share-face-off-hypersca
lers-vs-colocation-vs-enterprise. Accessed 19 Oct. 2026.
"Hyperscale Operators to Account for 67% of All Data Center Capacity by 2031."
Synergy Research, 7 Apr. 2026,
www.srgresearch.com/articles/hyperscale-operators-to-account-for-67-of-all-data
-center-capacity-by-2031. Accessed 19 Oct. 2026.
J. Aljbour, T. Wilson, and P. Patel, “Powering intelligence: Analyzing artificial intelligence
and data center energy consumption,” EPRI White Paper no. 3002028905, 2024.
"A Lack of Capital Is Not the Most Pressing Bottleneck for AI Progress—It's the Power
Needed to Fuel It." Goldman Sachs,
www.goldmansachs.com/what-we-do/investment-banking/insights/articles/poweri
ng-the-ai-era?chl=ps&plt=go&cid=22699750214&agp=183774187160&kid=ai%2
power%20infrastructure&mtype=p&gclid=Cj0KCQjwqebEBhD9ARIsAFZMbfyql7
a3hhdm1v5tDk2StBUxd1sC5eLcB8A9G313mjuJCx5D_DpOBt4aAt8fEALw_wcB
&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22699750214&gbraid=0AAAA
ArCfCwsQ3yM2KMrN-N6PQPBpZ5Z1o. Accessed 19 Oct. 2026.
Mahan, Josh. "How Many Data Centers Are in the US? Latest Statistics and Trends."
C&C WaveTech, 31 May 2025,
cc-techgroup.com/blog/how-many-data-centers-are-in-the-us/. Accessed 19 Oct.
Miller, Gabby. "Democrats Lay Groundwork for Massive AI Offensive." Politico, 9 Oct.
,
www.politico.com/news/2026/10/09/democrats-ai-oversight-agenda-next-congres
s-01113748. Accessed 19 Oct. 2026.
Moore, David, and Donald Shaw. "How Congress Is Cashing in on the AI Boom." The
Nation, 15 Oct. 2026, www.thenation.com/article/society/congress-ai-investments/. Accessed 19 Oct. 2026.
Moreland, Jackson. "Tech Giants Load up on Debt to Build AI Infrastructure." Briefs
Finance, 12 Oct. 2026, www.briefs.co/news/tech-giants-load-up-on-debt-to-build-ai-infrastructure/. Accessed 19 Oct. 2026.
Neuman, Scott, host. "The Data Center Backlash Is Reshaping American Politics —
One Community at a Time." Only on NPR, 21 Sept. 2026. NPR,
www.npr.org/2026/09/21/nx-s1-5927288/data-center-election-voters-ai. Accessed
Oct. 2026.
Romaine, Jenna. "Trump on AI: 5 Quotes That Show Where He Stands." U.S. News, 14
Sept. 2026,
google.com/url?q=https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2026-09-
/trump-on-ai-what-hes-said-about-china-regulation-and-the-risks&sa=D&sourc
e=docs&ust=1792468839029000&usg=AOvVaw1uiJQeJWrM0qG7y2ORkK8Y.
Accessed 19 Oct. 2026.
Shehabi, A.; Newkirk, A.; Smith, S.; Hubbard, A.; Lei, N.; Siddik, M., et al. (2024). 2024
United States Data Center Energy Usage Report. Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory. Report #: LBNL-2001637. http://dx.doi.org/10.71468/P1WC7Q
Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/32d6m0d1
Downloads
Posted
Categories
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Research Archive of Rising Scholars
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
